On-line teachings

One of the things I miss most while being on the road is fellowship in my local church.

Fortunately, I occasionally have the time to visit other churches (like Calvary Chapel of Hendersonville).

Another blessing is that I also get a chance to catch up on some of the teachings I've missed at my home church via the internet.

God is great!

Click here for the full post.

BMW Charity Pro Am at The Cliffs

We were rained out today, so there will be no 4th round at the BMW Charity Pro Am at The Cliffs.

However, today wasn't a total wash... I had time to take a picture of two of the vehicles I get to drive this weekend.

Click here for the full post.

It's not just in Canada

This from the ACLJ

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2005

Dear Bryan,
Pastor Bori Oginni was ARRESTED for holding a CHURCH SERVICE!

Sound like an incident in a Communist-ruled country? It happened in a small suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.

You can help the American Center for Law and Justice fight this frightening violation of First Amendment freedoms by giving a secure, online gift today to support our legal actions.

Here are the facts:

Oginni pastors Lighted Path Ministries International, a non-denominational Christian church, serving St. Louis, Missouri, and neighboring cities for the past six years.

The church had been using a day care facility for church services for more than two years.

During a church anniversary celebration, a local police officer stopped by to inquire about the event and left.

Three days later, the owner of the day care center was summoned to appear in court to answer questions about the religious service.

Later, a police officer arrived at a Sunday morning service and asked to speak with the pastor and have him fill out a form at his office.

Pastor rode in the car with the officer to city hall (since the officer had blocked the pastor's vehicle with his police car).

Once they arrived, the officer arrested the pastor.

The violation was described as "conducting business/service without proper license."

Pastor Oginni is awaiting trial while our legal teams are already preparing for the case.
This entire humiliating incident is nothing less than religious discrimination!

We cannot allow this hostile and unfair treatment to go unchallenged. If we do nothing, where will attacks on religious freedom end?

We must stop it now. Please help the ACLJ fight the outrageous charge against Pastor
Oginni by giving online today.

Try to imagine a Sunday morning service in your church suddenly interrupted by an officer of the law who takes your own pastor away, arrests him, and throws him in jail.

It happened here ... in the U.S.!

And it could happen again, unless you and I take a stand for religious liberty and freedom.

Your immediate online financial support will help the ACLJ fight this critical legal battle and continue all our work around the country to protect your religious and constitutional rights.

Thank you!
American Center for Law and JusticeP.O. Box 90555, Washington, D.C.
20090-0555Phone: (800) 296-4529Copyright©2005, ACLJ Privacy & Security Policy Unsubscribe
American Center for Law and Justice is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit, religious corporation as defined under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, specifically dedicated to the ideal that religious freedom and freedom of speech are inalienable, God-given rights. The Center's purpose is to educate, promulgate, conciliate, and where necessary, litigate to ensure that those rights are protected under the law. The organization has participated in numerous cases before the Supreme Court, Federal Court of Appeals, Federal District Courts, and various state courts regarding freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
As always, let us know of threats to freedom in your area by calling (757) 226-2489. And tune in to our daily radio program, "Jay Sekulow Live!"

I'm curious to see where this goes. Will there be anything in the news about this? One wonders.

Click here for the full post.

Growing in God with Candace (her testimony)

This is an awesome testimony of a young woman who thought she was right with God, but discovered that she wasn't. She also just happens to be a celebrity! :-)

Click here for the full post.

Is the Bible True: Evolution vs. Creation

The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
(Proverbs 3:19-20)

God tells us in Genesis (the creation story) and twice in Exodus (the giving of the law) that He created the universe in six days. That is six, twenty-four hour days. In Proverbs, quoted above, God tells us that He intelligently designed His creation.

Belief in creation (and a Creator) and belief in evolution (and random chance as the creating force) are both just that, a belief. Do you believe the God of the Bible, that His words are true? Or do you believe the scientists; men who claim to be open minded (to everything except a Creator)?

If you think that being a "Theistic Evolutionist" is the way to go, please reconsider. The theistic evolutionist believes that God started the evolutionary process, and perhaps may believe that God occasionally guided it. This belief does answer one of the failings of evolution; there is no "reason" the Big Bang explosion should have ignited. Still, the god proposed by the theistic evolutionist is far different than the God who breathed the Bible. The god of the theistic evolutionist is disconnected, distant, error-prone, and of limited power. In His Word, God tells us that He is ever present, lovingly concerned, all knowing, and all powerful. Let me link a site that better explains this, The Living Word.

It is impossible to prove evolution a scientific fact because, as God put the question to Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding." The scientific method requires as it's first step, observation.

As a theory, evolution also fails the test; there are no transistional creatures alive today, nor do any exist in the "fossil record"! For evolution to hold water as a theory, there should be observable instances of creatures evolving, there should be examples of life coming from unlife, and there should be examples of order coming from disorder. None of this exists.

So far, both under the intelligent design of scientists and natural occurrences, the closest thing to evolution that has been achieved or observed has been the altering of a species into another version of the same species! This is called "micro-evolution" and is actually part of God's design. For all the variations we have has humans, we are all still humans. All the differences between the different breeds of dogs, they are all still dogs... No mater how many weird variations of the fruit fly scientists breed, they are all still fruit flies. No transistional creatures here, everything was made after its kind. Further,

All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
(1 Corinthians 15:39)

as is being proven by microbiology and genetics. A better article (and discussion) on all this is linked here.

As for evidence of creation, look around you (Psalm 19:1-4).

Click here for the full post.

2005 Men's ACC Golf Tournament

I've posted a few photos from the 2005 Men's ACC Golf Tournament. Congratulations to Duke University for their win.

Click here for the full post.

Is the Bible True: The Dead Sea Scrolls

The importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls, in basic terms, is that the more "modern" copies of the Bible used for the translations we use today, were proven accurate!

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, many critics and cynics claimed that the Bible that is in use would have greatly differed from the one that was originally written due to transcription errors and human editorializing. To their credit, there is much evidence of this in other"holy" books. The Koran has been greatly altered due to editorializing and transcription errors in the 1500 years (approximately) of its existance. Even the Book of Morman (written sometime around 1830) has been greatly altered due to editorializing of its content.

The prior oldest copies of the Hebrew Scriptures (which make up the Old Testament of the Christian Bible) were dated near 1000 AD. The originals were written between 1500 and 400 BC. So, seeing as how "similar" books had changed in much shorter times, the scholars assumed that the Bible of 1000 AD would be entirely different from the original.

Then the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The Dead Sea Scrolls included a complete copy of the Book of Isaiah, and another nearly complete copy. These were dated to about 100 BC, a difference of over 1000 years! Scholars were certain that these would not even be close to the 1000 AD versions. They were very suprised to find that they were nearly identical! The only "errors" were some spelling variations and some minor grammer differences that do not alter the meanings.

Because of the nearly 6000 greek copies of the New Testament, made near (within a 100 years or so) the originals, and the thousands of citations in other writings (it has been said that the New Testament could be entirely reconstructed from the writing of the early church fathers quoting it in their own letters), it has never been seriously disputed.

Click here for the full post.

Is the Bible True: Archaeology

I've linked a story from Science Daily that details how a 2002 discovery proves a portion of the Bible to be historically accurate, at the expense of "contemporary scholarship". The story is based on a Feburary 2005 news release from the University of California, San Deigo.

In the story the author states that the find "adds to the controversy over the historical accuracy of the Old Testament." It is only controversial if you reject the mountains of evedience already discovered. Time after time, there has been cases of "current scholarship" at odds with the Bible; and one-by-one the evedince these cases fall to the side of the Bible. There is an excellent article here.

Click here for the full post.

Abiding : Laying down lies

In her article Laying down lies, the author (Deb Sawyer) explains how she came to the conclusion that many of her fears come from false beliefs; false beliefs being lies that she's claimed as truth.

I highly recommend this article, as it has given me insight to my own fears as well. Look for the link to Abiding in the Other Blogs list.

Click here for the full post.

Warnings

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
(Ezekiel 16:49-50)

The total depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah was the result of their mishandling the blessings of God. It was God who created the fertile plain on which their city was built, yet they were proud of themselves for their riches. Again, it was God who provided the rain which kept the harvests coming in, but they ate gluttonously instead of using the excess food wisely. It was God that allowed them such prosperity that they did not have to spend all their time working in order to survive, but they chose to amuse themselves instead of using their free time to help others. They didn't use their abundance to help the poor and needy, which would have been a way for them to have wisely handled the resources that God had given them. They became arrogant and depraved and so suffered the judgment of God.

The obvious parallel these days is the United States of America, or some other wealthy country that is moving away from morality, trying to exclude God from public life. There is application there; however there is also personal application. Pride, gluttony, laziness, apathy (or even contempt) for the impoverished, arrogance and being given over to our desires (or lusts) are all common failures to which we all can fall.

The judgment of God came on Sodom and Gomorrah after they had a witness. No, not just Lot (who, though he was a follower of God, was living among them ineffectively… a whole other subject), but Abraham himself had rescued them from an invasion (see Genesis 14). Abraham interceded for them; if there had just been a bit of true righteousness in them, the cities would have been saved (Genesis 18:16-33). Likewise, we can be saved from God’s ultimate judgment, if we have Christ’s righteousness in us. We won’t become instantly perfect and sinless; we will still make mistakes and fail. However, we will begin to have victories over our sins and failures through God’s power and others will see the change in our lives.

For those of us who have become Christians, the choice is will we live like Abraham or Lot? Abraham was a neighbor of Sodom, he used the blessings God gave him to rescue Lot and Sodom (again Genesis 14), but he does not live in Sodom. Lot, perhaps wanting to enjoy the culture of Sodom, chooses to live among them (Genesis 13:10-13). Therefore instead of being able to help them in their time of need, he is carried off with them when the invading armies come (Genesis 14:11-12). When he finally makes a stand on his morals, the people of the city turned against him (Genesis 19:9). And it is only by God’s exceeding mercy that Lot was saved from Sodom’s destruction (Genesis 19:16).

It’s interesting to note that Lot starts off by pitching his tents near Sodom (Genesis 13:12). His proximity to Sodom gets him caught up in their war, he and his belongings are carried off by the invading army (Genesis 14:11-12)… It’s possible the invaders didn’t know the difference between Lot and the residents of Sodom! By the time of the destruction of Sodom, we find Lot in the entrance of the city (Genesis 19:1), this is where the men of the city would gather together to do business. Finally, we discover that he has moved into the city proper (Genesis 19:2), and that God literally has to drag him out in order to save him from destruction (Genesis 19:16).

The desires of this world are like Sodom. As Christians we are saved out of the world, and its coming destruction. But sometimes we remember the fun we had before, while conveniently forgetting the pain, sorrow, loneliness, emptiness, sickness, loathing, etc. that came along with it. We get tempted to go back to our old ways. We justify it by saying; we’ll be a good example, a good witness to these “sinners”. But we find that, more and more, we fall back to our old ways, even though it may seem to be much less fun. And we feel trapped. Lot could have left; we can leave our failure behind as well, with God’s help. He was troubled by the actions of those who surrounded them (2 Peter 2:7-9). So too, will we not have peace while living “in the world” not doing as we should. Lot lost everything but his life, and his legacy was Moab and Ammon two nations that fell to idolatry and were enemies of God’s chosen people, Israel. We face eternity without rewards to lay at our Master’s feet, and leaving behind a darkness where we could have spread the Light.

Click here for the full post.

Self Worth

What am I worth? The basic definition of worth is how much some one would buy me for.

Well, scientists say that the elements that make up my body are worth about $24. Of course, that doesn't deduct the hundreds, or perhaps thousands of dollars it would cost to recover and refine the different elements. Ah, but now with organ transplants, I can be parted out like and old car for the tune of some $22,000. Still, that $22,000 does me no good; if I'm dead (and giving up all my organs would, most likely make me dead). What I'm worth according to science doesn't help me very much, because I have to die to collect it and (atheistic) scientists claim there is no life after death.

Allah says that if I die a killing infidels, then he will give me 70 virgins in paradice. That sounds pretty good, so I'm worth a life after death in paradice with 70 virgins. However, Allah also says if someone lies to me for their own benefit, and I believe and act on that lie, the lier is blameless and I am a fool. It seems to me that Allah is looking to make a fool out of people. So, my worth according to Allah depends on whether Allah is trustworthy, and he flatly tells us that he is not.

Capitalism says that I'm worth the amount of money that I contribute to society. So, should I become dependent on society (ill, disabled, aged, ect.) then I'm no longer of any worth. So, like Terry Schiavo, I should be euthanised so that I'm not a drag on the worth of others (like an inconvienced spouse). Hmm, I'm not liking capitalism either... and for the record, communism shares this oppinion in common with capitalism (see we can all agree on something!).

God (the Holy God of the Christian Bible) says that I am of infinite worth. He values me that way because of His love! He sent His only son to die in my place, so that I may live forever with Him. He is a Holy and Just God, and I am a willful sinner; I cannot come near God on my own merit. But Christ Jesus, the Son of God, lived a perfect life and yet He suffered the consequence of my sins and died in payment for my sins by being beaten and crucified. Since He paid my debt, I owe everything to Him. Therefore I should acknowledge my debt, and offer my life to Christ Jesus, to proclaim Him as my Savior, and give Him control (lordship) over my life. God, the Lord Jesus Christ my Savior, is my worth!

He can be your worth too. If you will only accept that you need God, but you cannot come near a Holy God by your own works. Understand that Jesus, payed the price because He loves you. And accept Jesus as Lord in your life, and tell others about it.

Click here for the full post.

Be careful what you ask for...

13 Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done!
They wouldn't wait for his counsel!

14 In the wilderness, their desires ran wild,
testing God's patience in that dry land.

15 So he gave them what they asked for,
but he sent a plague along with it.
(Psalms 106:13-15, NLT)

4Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt, and the people of Israel also began to complain. "Oh, for some meat!" they exclaimed. 5"We remember all the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic that we wanted. 6But now our appetites are gone, and day after day we have nothing to eat but this manna!"

18"And tell the people to purify themselves, for tomorrow they will have meat to eat. Tell them, `The LORD has heard your whining and complaints: "If only we had meat to eat! Surely we were better off in Egypt!" Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will have to eat it. 19And it won't be for just a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty. 20You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the LORD, who is here among you, and you have complained to him, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?" ' "

31Now the LORD sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall into the camp and all around it! For many miles in every direction from the camp there were quail flying about three feet above the ground. 32So the people went out and caught quail all that day and throughout the night and all the next day, too. No one gathered less than fifty bushels! They spread the quail out all over the camp. 33But while they were still eating the meat, the anger of the LORD blazed against the people, and he caused a severe plague to break out among them.
(Numbers 11:4-6, 18-20, 31-33 NLT)

We need to becareful not to look back on the "good old days" before we became Christians, also we should be careful of those we associate with. The complaining began with those traveling with the Israelites, but they quickly joined in. So we need to be careful of complaining, as we might draw other in, and even listening to complaints, as we may find ourselves quickly drawn in.

They asked for meat, and they got meat; but it was not a blessing, it became a plague. This is a problem for people who get drawn into the "name and claim it" junk that is being preached by some false teachers. The children of Israel named it, claimed it, and got it... along with a curse.

2You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can't possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don't have what you want is that you don't ask God for it. 3And even when you do ask, you don't get it because your whole motive is wrong--you want only what will give you pleasure.
(James 4:2-3 NLT)

God has promised to give us what we ask for, but we need to make sure we are asking for the right things. If we love others, we will not be asking for selfish things. If we love God we will be asking for things that bring Him glory! If we were wise, we would desire heavenly treasures. The things of this earth perish, and we cannot take it with us. He who dies with the most toys, LOSES!

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
(Luke 12:16-20)

There's nothing wrong with having a lot of wealth, but we must remember that all wealth comes from the Lord. We should give generously to His work. Only if God's blessing is on it, is treasure not a curse.

Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.
(Proverbs 15:16)

Click here for the full post.

Seeking Advice

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who listens to advice is wise.
(Proverbs 12:15)

Because I know I'm right, I don't usually even bother to ask other people what they think; much less listen to them. That makes me a fool.

Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.
(Proverbs 13:10)

I have even been accused of arguing for the sake of arguing! Instead of arguing with everyone who has a different oppinion, I need to listen.

Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.
(Proverbs 15:22)

Perhaps this is why I've never had a long term project to succeed?

The verses above are recommended for consederation in part of the of the Crown Financial course I'm currently enrolled in. It's a funny thing, good Biblical advice about how to handle finances seems to reach into all aspects of life.

Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?
(Proverbs 17:16)

There's no point in spending money on any kind of education; if you don't have the desire to learn. I pray that God will increase my desire to learn, ability to understanding, and willingness to apply these lessons. (Perhaps I can become somewhat less of a fool.)

Click here for the full post.

Photos posted

A new album has been added to the collection. Click here to see 63 photos I took while working the Chitimacha Louisiana Open. Also viewable on Yahoo! Photos, along with the othe albums.

Click here for the full post.